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(No Model.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

STEAM GENERATOR. No. 601,486

Patented Mar. 29,1898.

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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 D. M. THOMPSON.

STEAM GENERATOR Patented Mar. 29, 1898.

INS/INTER.

WITNEEEIEI UNITED. STATES DAVID M. THOMPSON, .OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

STEAM-G EN ERATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 601,485, dated March 29, 1898.

Application filed March 29, 1897.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, DAVID M. THOMPSON, of Providence, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Steam-Generators; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

To secure the best and most economic result from the fuel consumed in a steam-generator, the fuel must be, first, burned so as to produce the largest possible heat units and the most perfect combustion of the fuel and the gases formed by the combustion of the fuel, and, second, as many of the heat units as possible must be absorbed by the water used to generate the steam. To secure the best result in the engine from each unit of water evaporated in the steam-generator, the steam must be made to take up all the heatunits it can carryto the steam-engine to be converted into power. To secure these ends in an upright tubular steam-generator is the object of my invention.

The invention consists in the peculiar and novel construction, in connection With a vertical tubular steam-generator, of an annular water-heater surrounding the upper part of the generator and the combination of the parts more fully set forth hereinafter.

Figure 1 is a Vertical sectional View showing the improvements and the relative positions of the parts. Fig. 2 is a transverse sec tional view on the line A A of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view on the line B B of Fig. 1.

In the drawings, at indicates a vertical tubular steam generator or boiler which in the preferred form is provided with the central column 5, extending vertically downward below the grate 6 6. In the preferred form the diameter of the grate is greater than the diameter of the vertical boiler 4 and is surrounded by a dome-shaped fire-brick lining 7 to form the furnace 8, which is inclosed by the casing 9. This casing is supplied with water at the lower part, where it has the inletopenings for supplying fuel extend through $erial No. 629,767. (No model.)

the casing 9 and the brick-lining 7. The casing is made up of sections connected near the bottom and top in such a manner that the internal water-spaces communicate.

The normal water-line is indicated by the numeral 12, and the tubes by 13. The heated gases pass from the furnace 8 through the tubes 13 into the space 14 and would pass off into the fiues 15 15 in the ordinary manner; but as these gases in a vertical tubular steamgenerator contain a large amount of useful heat I provide the annular chamber 16 and extend the same downward to a point preferably below the normal water-line of the boiler and surround the same with the jacket 17, so as to form the annular spaces 18 and 19 and carry the gases downward in the space 18 and upward through the spaces 19 to the flues 15, which are connected with the chimney. of an upper and lower flanged ring and two concentric sides riveted to the rings, or it may be made in sections connected together, so that the water can fiow from one section to the others.

The water is supplied to the casing 9 near the bottom, where it is heated by the heat passing through the fire-brick lining 7. The upper part of the casing is connected with the annular casing by the pipes 21 22, so that the water heated in the casing flows directly into the lower part of the annular chamber, where the temperature of the Water is increased. From the upper part of the annular chamber 16 the water is conveyed to a pump by the pipes 23, and from the pump the water is forced through the pipes 24. and through the coil of pipes 25 into the boiler by the pipe 26, preferably into the circulating-column 27. In Fig. 1 a well-known style of steam-pump is shown; but any kind of pump or means for forcing the water through the pipes may be used, or injectors may be used. v

To enable others skilled in the art to carry out my invention either in the identical form shown in the drawings or in such modified form as will be best adapted to the vertical tubular steam-generator to which it is to be applied, I will now more fully describe the operation of the same.

The fuel burned on the grate 6 produces a The annular chamber 16 may be made large volume of highly-heated gases which, owing to the arched fire-brick-lined furnace 8, are more thoroughly consumed than they can be in a furnace of (compared with the diameter of the tubular boiler) smaller size, as heretofore used, and much more thoroughly than in a furnace surrounded by a water-leg, by which the temperature of the furnace is reduced.

The heated products of combustion pass upward through the tubes 13. They surround the coil 25 and are not allowed to pass direetly into the flues 15, but must descend through the annular space 18, between the outside of the vertical boiler 4 and the inner side of the annular chamber 16. This downdraft separates the partially cooled gases 7 from the hotter gases and thereby maintains a higher temperature in the uptake 14, surrounding the coil 25 and in contact with the upper part of the boiler and the inner part of the annular chamber, thus materially increasing the efficiency of the water-heating surfaces and the superheating-surfaces of the steam-generator. The gases after passing under the annular chamber 16 ascend through the annular space 19 into the flues 15 and to the chimney, and all the available heat is thus conveyed to the water and the steam to be used in the engine or otherwise, while the water, which after absorbing the heat passing through the fire-brick lining of the furnace is exposed to the higher temperature of the gases in the annular chamber 16 and then to the still higher temperature of the uptake 14, is passed into the boiler at practically the temperature of the water in the boiler and readily converted into steam.

Not only is all available heat extracted from the products of combustion, but the water is brought in contact with them progressively at points where the difference of temperature is the greatest. The highest temperature of the furnace acts directly on the part of the generator and the tubes where the water is already highly heated; but no matter how highly heated the temperature of the fire is so great that the heating-surface of the boiler is very effective, owing to the great difference in temperature between the f urnace-heat and the water in the boiler. It may therefore be truly said that in this improved boiler the water is heated, converted into steam, and superheated on the step-up principle and the heat is conveyed to the water and steam on the step-down principle, so that efficiency and economy are secured in a very high degree.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. In a steam-generator, the combination of the following instrumentalities, viz: a vertical tubular steam-boiler,a furnace having a grate of larger diameter than the diameter of the vertical boiler, a fire-brick lining for the furnace, a cellular casing inclosing the lining of the furnace and disconnected from the boiler, an annular water-chamber extending above the boiler and surrounding the upper part of the vertical boiler to a point below the waterline in the boiler so as to leave an annular flue between the boiler and the water-cham-- ber, pipes connecting the lower casing with the upper annular chamber with a coil in the uptake and with the water in the steam-generator; whereby the feed-water is gradually heated and delivered to the generator and the heat of the furnace transmitted to the water and steam, substantially as described.

2. In a steam-generator, the combination with the upper part of a vertical tubular boiler, of an annular water-heating chamber of larger diameter than the boiler, an annu-' lar flue between the water-heating chamber and the boiler and an annular flue surrounding the water-heating chamber, said annular chamber extending above the upper end of the boiler and inclosing the uptake-space, whereby the gases are made to pass downward between the boiler and the annular chamber and under the same to the exit-flue, as described.

3. In a steam-generator, the combination with the upper part of the vertical tubular boiler and the uptake, of an annular waterheating chamber of larger diameter than the boiler extending from the top of the uptake downward to a point below the normal waterline of the boiler and forming a downdraft annular flue, a coil of pipes in the uptake above the boiler, connections between the annular chamber the coil and the steam-boiler,

and means for forcing the water from the annular chamber through the coil into the steamboiler, substantially as described, whereby the products of combustion are deflected downward and the feed-water is heated, as described.

4. In a steam-generator, the combination with the upper part of the vertical tubular steam-boiler, the uptake and the jacket 17 having the two flues 15 15 on opposite sides of the annular chamber 16 of larger diameter than the vertical tubular boiler shell and extending from the top of the uptake to a point below the normal water-line in the boiler and the annular flues 18 and 19,whereby the products of combustion are made to pass downward between the steam-boiler and annular chamber, under the same and upward be tween the annular chamber and the jacket to the flues 15 15, as described.

5. In a steam-generator, in combination, the vertical tubular steam-boiler 4, the central column 5, the grate 6 and fuel-supply openings, the casing 9 inclosing the lining of the furnace 8, the jacket 17 having the two flues 15 15, the annular chamber 16, the annular spaces 18 and 19, the coil 24, pipes connecting the casing and chamber with the coil and steam-boiler, and means for forcing the Water from the casing to and from the annular chamber through the coil into the steamboiler, whereby the products of combustion are made to pass upward through the flues of the boiler and downward on the outside of the boiler to the exit-fiues and the water is heated successivelyin the casing, then in the annular chamber and in the coil, and is fed to the boiler, substantially as described. 10

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

' D. M. THOMPSON. Witnesses:

JOSEPH A. MILLER, JOSEPH A. MILLER, Jr. 

